So what is a CLD-A100 LaserActive?
It just looks like a big Laser Disc player right? Well, actually
that's what it is but with a lovely little secret. The LaserActive
was Pioneer's attempt to enter the multimedia market to play against the
likes of the CD-i and the 3DO. With Pioneer not exactly being in
the games market they came up with a very clever solution that would
allow them to enter the market with a library of hundreds of quality
titles. This alone should have made the machine a clear cut winner
and in the eyes of a true gamer it was however the price of the unit at
launch was far too expensive. Add poor marketing and the
LaserActive quietly disappeared just around the time the 3DO was gaining
popularity.

So what type of games can the
LaserActive play? The the machines dedicated format was the Mega
LD. These were games coming on Laser Discs formatted in the LD-ROM
format. Most of these games were ports of PC RPGs or educational
crap but there were also some arcade perfect ports of animation based
games such as Triad Stone (Strahl), Time Gal and Road Blaster. The
main percentage of the CLD-A100 games came from the PACs which slotted
into the front of the unit. Two system packs were available for
the machine. The most popular being the Sega PAC that you can see
installed in to my system. This PAC would allow you to play Mega
Drive and Mega CD games on your CLD-A100 LaserActive. This is also
the only way to play Mega Drive games with pure high quality audio
without modding your system thanks to Pioneer's advanced audio
technology. The second PAC available for the CLD-A100 came from
NEC allowing you to play PC Engine Hu-Cards and CD-ROM based games.
This PAC is now considered the most rare of the two released.

Other PACs were also available
such as the Karaoke PAC which would turn the CLD-A100 LaserActive in to
a professional Karaoke system, and the Computer Interface PAC.
This PAC has a 25-pin serial port allowing the CLD-A100 LaserActive to
be controlled by custom programs authored on PC or Macintosh computers.
This PAC came with a 33-button infrared remote control providing more
functionality than the 24-button remote included with the CLD-A100. Also
included on DOS and Mac floppy disks was the LaserActive Program Editor.
Finally there was also a 3D goggle PAC for use with 3D movies and even
3D Master System games via an adaptor.

Above you can see a lovely front view of the
CLD-A100 LaserActive. It really does look like a normal Laser Disc
player besides the Sega PAC in the bottom left corner. As you can
see, there's really next to no controls on the front of the machine.
The button in the centre surrounded by gold is actually the reset switch
for the game PACs. It has no function at all when playing Laser
Discs or audio CDs. The main bulk of controls were provided by the
system's remote control or by using a 6 button controller connected to
the Sega PAC.

Here you can see that Sega PAC in the flesh.
It's simply a Mega Drive / Mega CD in cartridge form.

This slots neatly in to the main body of the
CLD-A100

For such a high-end bit of kit the CLD-A100 has no
RGB out! What is it with those NTSC countries and their love with
piss poor composite video?

At least Pioneer could have included a S-Video
out. Sega and Victor did with the original Wondermega.